Parental Involvement and Learners’ Academic Performance in Public Primary Schools in Kesses Sub County, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Parental involvement in a learner’s life begins during conception, birth and throughout the childhood development of an individual. Parental involvement extends into early life, where oral and cognitive skills are inculcated in readiness for academic life. Further parental involvement is linked to the academic progress of a learner through engagement in diverse activities such as assisting the learners in undertaking assignments, attending the learner’s school mentorship programs, connecting between teachers and learners, and attending teacher-parent meetings. The study investigated the influence of parental communication on learners’ academic performance in public primary schools in Kesses Sub-County, Usain, Gishu, Kenya. The study was anchored on Epstein’s (2018) six-type learning model and adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study moreover targeted a population of 85 head teachers, 425 teachers and 850 parents within 85 public schools in Kesses. Respondents were selected through purposive sampling in the case of head teachers and adopted simple random stratified sampling in selecting 137 teachers and parents. Questionnaires were deployed to draw data from the respondents and establish the reliability of the test instrument. Data was analysed, and meaningful interpretations and presentations were inferred through statistical tests of descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (ANOVA, Pearson’s Correlations Coefficient and Linear regressions using SPSS Version 26. Findings from the analysed data established that parental communication significantly affects academic performance with sig levels α < 0.05. The study recommends that education policymakers should enhance communication infrastructure to support learning in schools and ensure that parents are sensitised to the need for enhanced parental occupations and the benefits of having positive desires towards a learners’ academic journey